Spencer Reid
Dr. Spencer Reid is a Supervisory Special Agent with the BAU. He is hailed as a genius and an Autodidact. Background Reid graduated from high school at age 12. In his youth, his father left him and his mother since his father could no longer deal with his mother's paranoid schizophrenia. He once mentioned that he was victim of bullying in school where he was stripped naked and tied to a goalpost in front of other students. After waiting for all the other teenagers to leave, he walked home, only to find that his mother had not noticed he was so late to return because she had been having one of her Schizophrenic episodes. Reid grew up learning nearly everything he knows from books, with his mother (a college professor) often reading to him. Still, Reid knew that the way his mother was living wasn't healthy. When he was eighteen, he had his mother, Diana Reid, placed in a mental institution. His mother still resides in that same mental institution and Reid has stated that he sends letters every day because of the guilt he feels for not visiting her. Reid is also worried about the fact that his mother's illness can be passed on genetically; he once told Morgan that "I know what it's like to be afraid of your own mind." Reid has an eidetic memory, meaning that he can remember an exceedingly large amount of information with extraordinary detail. This, however, only applies to information gathered visually (as implied with the word eidetic); he has not been so successful in auditory information, as evident when he once noted he could not remember "that new tech girl's name." On the Job After being kidnapped by Tobias Hankel, and continuously injected with Dilaudid--which caused hallucinations of his past--Reid developed an addiction problem. This problem was discovered by Hotch and Gideon over time, as well as an old friend of Reid's in New Orleans. He has since become clean; in Elephant's Memory, he attended a support group meeting for addicts in law enforcement. He said he'd been experiencing cravings recently and spoke of the teenage suspect shot in front of him before being interrupted by a page from work. He was surprised to find one of his superiors attending the same meeting. The older agent, named "John"At substance abuse meetings, fellow addicts simply refer to each other by their first names; a way to ensure anonymity and equality., loaned Reid his one year sobriety coin, making Reid promise that he would return once he earned his own. He is still very particular about staying clean, as seen in Amplification when he strictly refused to take any kind of painkillers after being infected by anthrax. In the season 3 episode Damaged he managed to save himself and Hotch by delaying Chester Hardwick (who intended to kill them as a way to evade the execution of his death sentence) giving him his profile. When the situation had been diffused, he stated that he didn't know if the profile was accurate, thus revealing it had been improvised on the spot using his encyclopedic knowledge. He also stated that he does some of his best work when under 'intense terror'. In the season 4 episode Minimal Loss, he and Prentiss are held hostage by a cult led by a polygamist (played by Luke Perry) resulting in him feeling guilty over his fellow agent getting beaten by the cult leader. In The Instincts a young boy disappears and it leads Reid to some questions about his own past. In "52 Pickup", Reid won a date with a bartender while investigating a serial killer. On Morgan's advice (who told him "chicks dig magic tricks"), he performed an impressive illusion with a pen and a flier showing a police sketch of the Unsub. The bartender would later call him and ask him out. In Faceless, Nameless (the Season Five premiere), Reid is shot in the leg by an unsub while protecting a doctor whom the killer had targeted. It is a superficial wound, and Reid tells the doctor to treat the unsub instead of him. In the next episode, Haunted, he carried crutches. Later in the season he moved on to use a cane and continued doing so until the episode The Uncanny Valley. In "100", Reid manages to figure out that George Foyet is using the alias "Peter Rhea", which is an anagram of "The Reaper". The team finds out Rhea's address and storms his apartment, only to find that Foyet had posted an internet alert on the name Peter Rhea (to alert him if the name was ever investigated), and has disappeared. Notes * In episode 4x08 it is revealed that he holds PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering and BAs in Psychology and Sociology. Was working on receiving a BA in Philosophy and may have gotten it by now. * Reid has an IQ of 187.TV.com profile on Reid *Can read 20,000 words per minute.TV.com * Like many "brainiac" types, Reid tends to ramble on when the conversation leads to a subject with which he is very familiar. This tendency is somewhat annoying to his peers and they often politely shut him up with a blank stare. * Went to public school in Las Vegas, and was frequently bullied. * He is an avid Star Trek fan. * Likes soap operas Episode P911 * Is a skilled illusionist.Episode 52 Pickup * His sidearm is a Glock 19, In season 4 he has a Norica Revolver. * He dislikes creamed spinach but likes Indian food (in one of the episodes he tried to invite his team members to try a new Indian restaurant he found). * Is an avid coffee drinker. His mom thinks that's why he is so skinny. In Rite of Passage, he stated that if coffee was to be cut, he'd quit the FBI. * He has trouble using chopsticks and says using them is like trying to forage for food with a pair of number two pencils. * He is good at playing cards and won over $2,000 while playing on a machine in Las Vegas, but he let a "hooker" keep his winnings. Episode Memoriam * Reid's leg injury was originally unplanned, but had to be written in because of Matthew Gray Gubler's real-life severe knee injury which left him unable to walk for over four months. After a fourth surgery in September, Gubler is now using a cane. He has been unable to walk normally for the past five months. * Dr. Reid appeared without cane or crutches in season 5 episode "Uncanney Valley" and again in "Risky Business." As of December 2009 Matthew Gray Gubler was once again able to walk unassisted. * During the opening credits Charles Manson's photo is seen passing behind Reid's head. References Category:Main Characters